Employment Hero’s founder is at war with another investor, launching legal action against Seek

Unicorn HR startup Employment Hero is suing Seek and has accused the ASX-listed jobs board of anti-competitive behaviour after it cut Employment Hero’s API access.

A spokesperson for Employment Hero told Startup Daily the company “reluctantly” applied to the Federal Court for an interim injunction to stop Seek from terminating its API access, which is due to occur on August 25.

“SEEK is a critical integration for many customers and our foremost priority is continuity and confidence for every employer,” the spokesperson said.

“We consider that the termination was a breach of the competition laws.”

Employment Hero’s customers use the Seek integration to publish and modify job ads directly onto the jobs board from Employment Hero’s HR platform.

A spokesperson for Seek told Startup Daily it would defend the allegations but would not comment on the substance of active legal proceedings.

“At a more general level we note again what we have said in many strategy presentations: Seek operates in a highly competitive market with many competitors, from multi-nationals to start-ups, and believes that the vibrancy of competition generates innovation that is very beneficial for all customers,” the spokesperson said via email.

Employment Hero CEO Ben Thompson announced the API access revocation in a blog post last month, saying Seek cut them off under a ‘no cause’ clause in the terms of service.

“There was no issue of non-compliance,” Thompson wrote.

“There was no collaborative discussion. It was a formal decision to remove access and disrupt how thousands of businesses manage their hiring through Seek”

Earlier this year, Seek’s venture fund divested itself of a $95 million holding in Employment Hero, selling its stake to US investment firm KKR.

At the end of 2024, corporate filings revealed that the price Employment Hero paid to acquire Thompson’s side hustle — the loss-making professional services firm Employment Innovations — was $43.4 million, nearly double its FY2024 revenue of $22.6 million.

The company said the deal was “negotiated at arm’s length”, but it went through at a time when Thompson was embroiled in a messy and very public fight with one of the company’s investors, Hostplus, with the founder claiming the super fund “wants to put us out of business” and have him sacked.